Potential matters a great deal when you're talking about a MMORPG, which is always a work-in-progress. Just the same way an employer is hiring a new college graduate based on their potential, because they don't have any experience. Put another way, you are buying a MMO that has a good and solid foundation for future growth, much the same way an employer hires a person with a good foundation in the concepts of that job field.
Now I'm not defending MO or saying MO has a good foundation, I'm just pointing out that buying a game based on its potential is a necessity. Why buy a game that doesn't have the potential to grow into a really good game? Developers just don't have the budgets to create good games that'll last more than 3-6 months, so their best best is building a good and solid foundation, that is relatively bug free and completely playable, so that they can concentrate solely on content releases, instead of on massive bug squashing and stability fixes; things that should be taken care of during beta.
I'd disagree with that stance purely on the principle that it is the current state of the game that encourages people to fork out the £30 and maybe 3 months of subscription time, and the future potential that keeps them playing after max level or, in MO's case, maxing their skills. Potential in and of itself is not a selling point, it is to keep the people who have already bought the game playing.
To use your analogy, it's like going to an interview in dirty, scruffy clothing and sitting there picking your nose while telling the employer to hire you because you pinky swear that you'll be clean-cut and a hard worker in the future. What exactly have you done to reassure the interviewer that you will deliver on that promise? You might be potentially the best employee they'll ever hire, but you have to convince them first that you're capable of delivering on that and all they have to go off is what you're like now.
Like the employer, the most logical response of anyone interested in Mortal Online will be either to check back again in 6 months and see if the caterpillar has morphed into a butterfly, or just write it off as not capable of stepping up to the challenge. By turning up to your interview looking like a bag of shit, all you've done is convinced the interviewer that you believe that is acceptable, and in releasing MO in its current state and charging premium prices, SV is just proclaiming "we consider this to be quality work". What, then, is stopping the customers from assuming that all of SV's future work will be of a similar standard?
EDIT: I just realised I'd completely misread what you were saying about solid foundations in your post. Never mind. It's been a long day.
When will people stop saying this? Potential means nothing until it's utilized.
It means nothing when a developer says "Were going to have feature x!" until that feature is actually implemented into the game. Why? Because that feature could be months or years away, or never be implremented at all. Developers can get away with saying nearly anything by putting that little sentence on the box that says "Game experience may change during online play".
What does that mean for you? Stop paying for potential and start demanding finished products. That's your responsibility as a consumer.
Potential matters a great deal when you're talking about a MMORPG, which is always a work-in-progress. Just the same way an employer is hiring a new college graduate based on their potential, because they don't have any experience. Put another way, you are buying a MMO that has a good and solid foundation for future growth, much the same way an employer hires a person with a good foundation in the concepts of that job field.
Now I'm not defending MO or saying MO has a good foundation, I'm just pointing out that buying a game based on its potential is a necessity. Why buy a game that doesn't have the potential to grow into a really good game? Developers just don't have the budgets to create good games that'll last more than 3-6 months, so their best best is building a good and solid foundation, that is relatively bug free and completely playable, so that they can concentrate solely on content releases, instead of on massive bug squashing and stability fixes; things that should be taken care of during beta.
Anything can have potential just by saying "it has potential!". It's a loaded word, a farce, a scam to get you to buy things. If we lived in a world of strictly potential we would die.
Theres no game and no idea that can't live up to the "it has potential!" nonsense, or can't grow into a "potentially" good game.
When will people stop saying this? Potential means nothing until it's utilized.
It means nothing when a developer says "Were going to have feature x!" until that feature is actually implemented into the game. Why? Because that feature could be months or years away, or never be implremented at all. Developers can get away with saying nearly anything by putting that little sentence on the box that says "Game experience may change during online play".
What does that mean for you? Stop paying for potential and start demanding finished products. That's your responsibility as a consumer.
Potential matters a great deal when you're talking about a MMORPG, which is always a work-in-progress. Just the same way an employer is hiring a new college graduate based on their potential, because they don't have any experience. Put another way, you are buying a MMO that has a good and solid foundation for future growth, much the same way an employer hires a person with a good foundation in the concepts of that job field.
Now I'm not defending MO or saying MO has a good foundation, I'm just pointing out that buying a game based on its potential is a necessity. Why buy a game that doesn't have the potential to grow into a really good game? Developers just don't have the budgets to create good games that'll last more than 3-6 months, so their best best is building a good and solid foundation, that is relatively bug free and completely playable, so that they can concentrate solely on content releases, instead of on massive bug squashing and stability fixes; things that should be taken care of during beta.
Anything can have potential just by saying "it has potential!". It's a loaded word, a farce, a scam to get you to buy things. If we lived in a world of strictly potential we would die.
Theres no game and no idea that can't live up to the "it has potential!" nonsense, or can't grow into a "potentially" good game.
I hate that word. As a child I was constantly told I was not living up to my potential. Their definition of potential was their expectations of what I should do. It had nothing to do with my actual potential to be what I wanted to be and everything to do with what THEY wanted me to be. The same in gaming. When someone says a game has high potential they mean it could be the game THEY want to play, which can be at odds with being a game many people would not only want to play but also pay for the privilege to play. Potential means nothing in the real world because it is just a fantasy about how you want things to be, not how they will actually turn out. My opinion.
Comments
I'd disagree with that stance purely on the principle that it is the current state of the game that encourages people to fork out the £30 and maybe 3 months of subscription time, and the future potential that keeps them playing after max level or, in MO's case, maxing their skills. Potential in and of itself is not a selling point, it is to keep the people who have already bought the game playing.
To use your analogy, it's like going to an interview in dirty, scruffy clothing and sitting there picking your nose while telling the employer to hire you because you pinky swear that you'll be clean-cut and a hard worker in the future. What exactly have you done to reassure the interviewer that you will deliver on that promise? You might be potentially the best employee they'll ever hire, but you have to convince them first that you're capable of delivering on that and all they have to go off is what you're like now.
Like the employer, the most logical response of anyone interested in Mortal Online will be either to check back again in 6 months and see if the caterpillar has morphed into a butterfly, or just write it off as not capable of stepping up to the challenge. By turning up to your interview looking like a bag of shit, all you've done is convinced the interviewer that you believe that is acceptable, and in releasing MO in its current state and charging premium prices, SV is just proclaiming "we consider this to be quality work". What, then, is stopping the customers from assuming that all of SV's future work will be of a similar standard?
EDIT: I just realised I'd completely misread what you were saying about solid foundations in your post. Never mind. It's been a long day.
Anything can have potential just by saying "it has potential!". It's a loaded word, a farce, a scam to get you to buy things. If we lived in a world of strictly potential we would die.
Theres no game and no idea that can't live up to the "it has potential!" nonsense, or can't grow into a "potentially" good game.
"relatively bug free and completely playable"
And MO is neither
He who keeps his cool best wins.
I hate that word. As a child I was constantly told I was not living up to my potential. Their definition of potential was their expectations of what I should do. It had nothing to do with my actual potential to be what I wanted to be and everything to do with what THEY wanted me to be. The same in gaming. When someone says a game has high potential they mean it could be the game THEY want to play, which can be at odds with being a game many people would not only want to play but also pay for the privilege to play. Potential means nothing in the real world because it is just a fantasy about how you want things to be, not how they will actually turn out. My opinion.
Argg. I bought a preorder for both my friend and myself based on the "potential".
you could play DDO or that crap of game C&C 4. or maybe you could write up plans for your mmo to sell to the world. or play darkfall.
IN THE FACE!